Your heat Exhaustion might not be what you are thinking
Keep hydrated—you’ve heard that a million times. But drinking too much water might contribute to another problem in extreme heat. I didn’t know that, but I found out the hard way.
Temperatures keep rising yearly as we discover nothing is guaranteed for us. We suddenly realize we can’t call someone in an office and complain about the heat. And that the planet doesn’t care about how hot it gets—hey, think it is too hot? Go to Venus and see what you think.
We’re days away from realizing that we can’t commute to work for two hours a day and dump five tons of carbon into our atmosphere per year. If we don’t change our ways, we will be toast, literally. And when we can’t drive, we can no longer function. We might have to bike to work.
But I’m veering away from what I came here to say. I had a bad experience with heat exhaustion in the extreme heat of Brazil, and here’s what I’ve learned. Before I proceed, let me say it is a little bit too late when a person starts feeling heat exhaustion. It would be best if you got out of the heat before you feel anything uncomfortable. You have to develop a sensitivity before getting sick. Let me try to explain.
I went to Brazil in the middle of the summer, one of the hottest places in that country—the city of Salvador in Bahia. I went there to visit my sisters. I wrote a piece about that trip you might want to read. “Visiting Salvador, Brazil, a Land of Sensuality, Black Culture, and Violence”
One day, it was about 100 F, and we were walking around in the hottest part of the hottest hour. I’d only had breakfast that morning, and it was about three in the afternoon when I began to feel heat exhaustion. It was the most unpleasant feeling ever—this impending doom feeling with no place to escape. Nothing would resolve that doom sensation.
I walked into stores with air conditioning to escape, but that only offered a small relief. My sisters began to worry about me. We were waiting to be seated at a restaurant. Soon as we were let in, my younger sister said: just drink a Coca-Cola, and you’ll be fine. Brazilians believe Coca-Cola cures everything. I never drink sodas, but I gulped a glass of the cure-all potion out of desperation.
I immediately felt better, not just a little better, but completely normal. At that point, my fifteen years of being an RN kicked right in. My sickness wasn’t the heat, but I was hypoglycemic. Excessive heat lowers your blood sugar. But how does that happen?
Hot weather increases metabolism because, in hot weather, the body tries to balance itself by sweating. This requires more energy, which speeds up metabolism for more energy consumption. Exercise causes an elevation of temperature. This, in turn, increases metabolism. (source: Study.com)
The abnormally increased activity requires more glucose to keep sugar levels. Also, the unusual activity overwhelms our ability to quickly switch to burning fats or other forms of converted ATP for energy. But here’s where drinking lots of water might not be good.
You feel bad, so you drink more water. Nothing wrong with that but the increased amounts of fluid in your bloodstream further dilute your electrolytes, including glucose, precipitating a hypoglycemic episode.
The perfect storm is formed. Your lack of glucose will put you into panic mode and confusion, further increasing your heart rate as you desperately try to supply more glucose to the cells. A feedback loop is formed; the more glucose you need, the less you have.
I wonder how many people who collapse from heat are not having a hypoglycemic event making conditions worse for a heat stroke.
Coca-Cola in Brazil and Mexico is made with pure sugar cane, a shot of glucose right into your bloodstream. It snaps you right out of a hypoglycemic episode. But please, complement it with a full meal and get out of the sun. Next time you’re experiencing any heat stress, don’t panic, have a Coke. Remember that you might also be experiencing hypoglycemia.
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